Thursday, June 13, 2013

A Birthday & a Relish Tray!

Last week was my husband's birthday. We went to an amusement park, and went antiquing (of course!). In fact, we crammed some of both in the same day. Was so worn out afterward I basically couldn't move the next day. Oh hurray for getting older :-)

I had two big splurges I found during his birthday vacay. First I completed my vintage Fiesta relish tray!

I paid a small fortune for the ivory base, which was the only piece I
needed to make a complete tray. I've very luckily found the inserts for a
fraction of their worth, so I still did well, pricewise. I'm just happy
I have a complete tray, and I hope I will find many more pieces on my
future antique treks!

Complete vintage Fiesta relish tray. Hopefully over time I can replace the an ivory & yellow side insert with a turquoise & red for an all 6 color tray.

And oh heavens, this beautiful find caused me lots and lots of anxiety. A
beautiful service for 6 in Hazel Atlas Ripple (also known as Crinoline). In minty mint, unused condition. For a price far below ebay prices, but still pricey enough to cause me to initially walk away from them.

See, I had just completed my relish tray a few days before, and I really didn't feel right about dropping another chunk of change so soon. Especially since it was my husband's birthday vacation and he just wasn't finding anything much at all that he really wanted.

I bought them. I think they really are a find of a lifetime, and I was a very lucky lady to be presented with such a 'tough' choice. Truly.

One of my two other pieces I've managed to snag at a cheap enough price to make me bite - a pink dinner plate I think I paid two dollars for.

Note the dinner plates are by modern standards luncheon sized at nearly 9 inches around. There is only one larger plate - a 10 1/2 inch sandwich plate- that is considered a serving piece. And it's quite rare. Even these luncheon/dinner plates are becoming scarce.

Pyrex Salad bowl - collectors have dubbed it the "Fetus Bowl". Can you see why? :-)

All my Pyrex finds were 12 dollars each. It's just plain strange the number of Pyrex items that I've paid 12 dollars for. That must be the new local standard.

Above, the "Fetus" bowl. Do you see the baby, or do you see a pear with a leaf over it. It's very psychological. Lol! :-) The bowl itself is an unusual shade of Heinz 57 can green that Pyrex used on the Heinz promo, this bowl, and the Regency green dinnerware.

The yellow bowls were actually 3, another small 401 bowl not pictured. They were 12 dollars for all 3! Some utensil marks, but Bar Keeper's Friend cleaned them up rather nicely! Below them is a turquoise 023. An uncommon size. A half quart smaller than the much more common 024. This was the first time I've even seen the turquoise 023, so I was very happy to find it.

Pyrex all Yellow set on left, Daisy bowl on the right. Pyrex yellows are hard to sort out unless you've got them side-by-side.

And finally, I wanted to take pic of the difference between the all yellow Pyrex set and the yellow bowls from Daisy (also known as Citrus) set.

Pyrex yellows are a massively confusing mess. Every time I think I've got it sorted out, someone comes along and adds another yellow to the mix. In mixing bowls alone, there's still the Primary yellow, the small yellow/green from the Verde set, a 403/443 in butter yellow from the Town & Country set. Not to mention the refrigerator dishes from these patterns. And lately, I've seen a mention of there being an all yellow refrigerator dish set to accompany the bowls. Yay?

2 comments:

I was so close to buying a complete set of the pink Crinoline dishes at an antique show a couple of weeks ago. It consisted of salad plate, dinner plate, dessert bowl, cup, and saucer for 8! It was super cheap (in my opinion) at $49.00. It was still there on the last day. I talked myself out of it because I just couldn't bring myself to make my boys eat off of pink plates every day. I torture them enough with my pink Pyrex collection. Plus, the dinner plates weren't nearly as big as my Fiesta ones. Now the turquoise ones? I would have bought those in a second!

That's an amazing price for the pink. If I found a deal like that, and I had the money to spend, I'd be all over it! But I totally understand - a house full of boys might not appreciate pink plates :-)

We must have really similar taste in dishes! You've said all the magic words: Pyrex, Fiesta, Crinoline. Pyrex & Fiesta are my largest collections, but I happily pick up Fire King, Federal, Hazel Atlas, and some depression glass when I find pretty things for good prices.